A large number of items of cookware are frequently used in kitchens. The cookware can be of various sizes and types. Cooks generally prefer to have their cookware stored neatly where the cookware is easily accessible for use. However, kitchens generally have only a limited amount of storage space available and storing cookware efficiently without wasting storage space is a recurring problem. The storage problem is made more difficult because many types of cookware have delicate cooking surfaces or exteriors that are easily damaged or marred.
One method of storing cookware involves hanging pieces of cookware from racks that hang from a ceiling or wall. Pieces of cookware are also frequently hung from hooks attached to various surfaces including the inside of cabinet doors. Cookware is also often stacked on shelves or in deep drawers.
These methods of storing cookware have several shortcomings. Stacking cookware makes it difficult to retrieve a needed piece of cookware. When cookware is stacked it is hard to view an entire cookware collection to select the best piece of cookware for the task at hand. A needed piece of cookware can be difficult to locate because the needed piece may be hidden in the stack by unneeded pieces. Unneeded pieces of cookware must frequently be lifted and unstacked to reach the needed piece. After using a needed piece of cookware, other pieces of cookware must be moved again to return the needed piece to the stack. Additionally, stacking and unstacking cookware can damage cookware pieces with non-stick surfaces or decorative surfaces as the pieces bump and rub against each other, leading many cookware manufacturers to recommend against stacking of such cookware.
Hanging cookware from ceiling or wall racks also creates several problems. Dust and contaminates can accumulate on cookware hung from ceiling and wall racks in the open. Additionally, many consumers either lack the space for overhead or wall storage, or find these methods of storing cookware interfere with their movement in the kitchen. Ceiling racks can also allow items of cookware to bump against each other making noise and potentially damaging the cookware.
Consumers who have sufficient space for overhead or wall storage methods simply cannot reach a ceiling rack or a wall rack without an assistive device, or feel doing so is unsafe. Because some items of cookware are heavy or large, it is also difficult for many consumers to lift the cookware high enough to reach the ceiling rack or wall rack. Further, some consumers avoid overhead and wall storage methods because they prefer a clean, clutter-free look to their kitchen, and thus prefer that all items of cookware are stored within cabinets when not in use.
Using hooks attached to cabinet doors causes several problems. Cabinet doors are frequently thin and do not provide a strong mounting surface for a hook, limiting the weight of cookware items that may be stored. The doors and hinges used to mount the doors to a cabinet are also rarely designed to carry the extra weight of the cookware and can therefore be damaged when cookware is stored in this manner. Finally, each cabinet door used to hang cookware provides only a limited storage capacity. It may be necessary to open several cabinet doors to find the necessary item of cookware. Therefore, hanging items of cookware from a cabinet door is not a significant improvement over stacking.
Attempts have been made to overcome these storage, capacity, and damage problems with only limited success.
An extendable garment hanger is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,132,190, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The garment hanger has a number of hooks spaced at fixed intervals on an extendable rack; however, the hooks cannot be moved or repositioned on the rack and additional hooks cannot easily be added to the rack.
A suspension device for clothing, curtains, and the like is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,613,447, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The suspension device is attached under a shelf by two brackets. A hollow tubular rod with a longitudinal slot facing downward is held by the brackets. Hooks are inserted through an open end of the slot. The hooks are suspended from the slot and can slide length-wise along the slot. The open end of the slot is covered when the tubular rod is in position between the brackets and therefore it is not possible to insert or remove hooks without at least partially disassembling the device. Access to items suspended from the device is limited because the device cannot extend out of an interior space of a cabinet.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,814,692, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes an extendable utensil rack comprising two telescoping tubular members, with the entire system mounted to the vertical wall of a cabinet. Hooks can only be added or removed by inserting them through the ends of the rack body before the rack is mounted to the wall or by detaching the rack body from the wall. In addition, mounting the rack to a vertical wall potentially limits the arrangement of pots and pans within the storage space, as the cookware is stored in relatively close proximity to the cabinet side-wall. Further, after the rack is mounted to a wall, the length of the rack is fixed. This design also prevents full extension of the rack from within the cabinet space.
An extendable cup rack is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,606,666, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The cup rack includes a plurality of support arms having hook portions at opposite ends. However, the support arms and hooks are fixedly and firmly attached at their mid-portions to a hanger of the cup rack, thereby preventing adjustment, arrangement, and addition of hooks to best support various pieces of cookware. Further, because the hooks extend outward, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the rack, the rack may twist or be damaged if heavier items are hung from the support arms on one side of the rack rather than on the other side of the rack.
A pot mounting apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,608,305, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The apparatus comprises a slidable panel with a vertical orientation from which hooks are fixed for holding pots. The hooks are attached to the panel by screws and are therefore not easily adjusted without disassembling and reconfiguring the device. The apparatus also includes wire racks which include hairpin shaped slots for gripping pots which could damage or scratch surfaces of cookware.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,611,492, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a support for hanging articles. The support is attached to an under side of a shelf and includes a recess with a slot for holding a ball end of a hook. The recess is not accessible from the top. Instead, the support includes a port through which hooks can be added or removed, but the port faces downward making it difficult to align the ball end with the port. Additionally, the support does not extend horizontally providing limited access to, and visibility of, articles hung therefrom.
An extendable closet rod is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,757,804, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The closet rod includes a downward facing slot through which a hook of a hanger bracket extends. The slot is closed at the top. To add or remove a hanger bracket to the closet rod, an upper body portion of the bracket must be inserted through cuttouts formed in a lower wall at the ends of the closet rod. Further, because hanger brackets can only be added through the cuttouts, the order and arrangement of the hooks cannot be changed such that if a particular hanger bracket is damaged or requires replacement, several hanger brackets may first have to be removed before the particular hanger bracket can be removed.
A pivoting rack for utensils is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,484, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The rack is secured within a kitchen cabinet by a vertical piano hinge. The rack includes pegboard panels that can swing out of a cabinet. However, cookware positioned between two of the panels is difficult to reach.
Another design for storing cookware is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0211449, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This design comprises a horizontal rack assembly adapted to mount to slides within a cabinet. The rack includes two side bars and several cross bars. Hooks hang down from the rack for receiving pots and pans. Because of the width of this design, pots hanging from a center portion of the rack would be difficult to reach. Additionally, because the hooks can only be positioned from the side bars or cross bars, the lateral spacing and adjustment of the hooks is not possible.
Several designs include movable or telescoping members with downwardly hanging hooks for cookware. Examples are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,387, U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,595, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0000864, which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. These designs do not allow the user to easily remove and/or add the hooks. Additionally, the extending rails of the '595 patent and the '864 publication cannot be fully extended from the inside of the cabinet, making access to the cookware stored at the back of the holder somewhat difficult.
An adjustable assembly for hanging cookware is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,766,290, which is incorporated herein in its entirety. The adjustable assembly includes a hanger track. Hanger assemblies rest on the hanger track from hanger sliders. Although the hanger assemblies can rotate and slide freely along the hanger track, the track ends must be removed to add hanger assemblies to the hanger track. Further, because hanger assemblies can only be removed from the track ends, if a hanger assembly is damaged and the damaged hanger assembly and an undamaged hanger assembly is positioned between the damaged hanger assembly and the end, the undamaged hanger assembly must be removed before the damaged hanger assembly can be removed.
A rotary storage device for a corner cabinet is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,074,812 which is also incorporated herein in its entirety. The device includes a hanging track enclosed by a track clamp. Both the track and the track clamp have an opening or slot facing downward and hooks project through the slot. However, the track and track clamp are both closed at the top. Therefore, additional hooks may only be added by feeding the hooks through the ends of the track and track clamp. But using this design, if a user wants to add a different type of hook in a particular position, other hooks may have to be removed and then reinserted into the track to achieve the desired arrangement.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0099073, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a retractable hanging assembly for cookware. The hanger assembly includes a hanger track section with a closed top and a track slot formed facing downward. Hanger assemblies are coupled to the hanger track section and cannot be added through the closed top of the hanger assembly.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need for a storage device that increases efficiency of storage space through the ability to fully extend from the storage space to provide improved access to stored items and which provides an improved ability to add or remove hooks without disassembly or removal of the storage device from the storage space and without first removing other hooks from the storage device.